Tag: Shoes

Conservative blogs are saying U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was gay and shouldn’t have been sent to the Middle East; Google’s censorship of the controversial anti-Muslim video proves Web companies have more power than governments; meanwhile, a Stanford University study claiming organic foods are useless is being called fraudulent. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Possibly taking a cue about resistance from the beloved Iraqi journalist who chucked his shoes at George W. Bush back in 2008, a 49-year-old doctor has thrown a piece of his own footwear at Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in protest of the government’s economic austerity measures.

Muntadar al-Zaidi became an instant hero to many when he lobbed his shoes at then-President Bush, but he’ll spend the next three years in an Iraqi prison. The sentence could have been five times longer, but still seems a harsh punishment for a crime that Bush himself praised as an example of free expression.

The shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist is now a venerated celebrity throughout the Mideast, and his words to the president—“this is the farewell kiss, you dog”—will stand as the enduring epitaph in the region on Bush’s folly, which is the reality of his claimed legacy of success in the war on terror.

Muntadar al-Zaidi’s shoe-throwing made him a hero in the Arab world, but his fate is uncertain. The reporter remains in custody, where, his brother says, he has been beaten and suffers from broken bones and internal bleeding. A Saudi man, meanwhile, has reportedly offered $10 million for the shoes that nearly struck President Bush.